Refractory brick



April 28, 1942.

w. H. HENSON EIAL REFRACTORY BRICK Filed Aug. 24, 1940 2 Sheets-Sheet l nq- 3 .mm M

1/. 0 EN 1 4 E. w X r m w\ w mH April 1942- w. H. HENSON EIAL 2,281,003

REFRACTORY BRICK Filed Aug. 24, 1940 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 ma -aaaw @312 a 82m Ln m a s: wa "8% 3 W/L LIAM H. HENSU'N Patented Apr. 28, 1942 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE REFRACTORY BRICK William H. Henson and Kenric B. Bird, Worcester, Mass., assignors to Norton Company, Worcester, Mass., a corporation of Massachusetts Application August 24, 1940, Serial No. 354,074

1 Claim.

The invention relates to refractory bricks, particularly for the construction of gas producers for the manufacture of water. gas and the like.

One object of the invention is to provide a more durable refractory brick. Another object of the invention is to reduce or eliminate clinker formation in gas producers without short-cirapplication of which will be indicated in the fol- I lowing claim.

In the accompanying drawings showing one of many possible embodiments of the features of this invention,

Figure 1' is a perspective view of abrick constructed in accordance with the invention;

' Figure 2 is an end view of the brick;

Figure 3 is a plan view of a number of bricks assembled to provide part of the refractory wall of a gas. producer;

Figure 4 is an internal developed view of a gas producer below the top thereof, which has been constructed input with bricks according to the present invention;

Figure 5 is a vertical sectional view taken along the line 5-5 of Figure 4;

Figure 6 is a horizontal sectional view taken along the line $6 of Figure 4; and

Figure 7 is a horizontal sectional view taken along theline 1-1 of Figure 4.

As conducive to a clearer understanding of the present invention, it is noted that gas producers have to be shut down from time to time for the removal of slag and clinkers which form on the fire side of the refractory lining. Such slag and producer lining made therefrom and as a result permit the-manufacture of water gas at less expense;

- cuiting the draft. Another object of the "invenhas hitherto been proposed to make a gas producer with a refractory lining having a multitude of passages from an exterior space into the fire zone. In the operation of gas producers, first air and then steam is forced through the bed of burning coke or other fuel. Such passages have short-circuited the draft in these gas producers and thereby decreased their efficiency. Using bricks according to the present invention, the formation of slag and clinkers is materially reduced without short-circuiting the draft and thus the over-all efliciency of theproducer is increased as compared with previous gas producers, whether of the type having passages through the refractory lining or otherwise.

Referring now to Figures 1 and 2, a brick l0 constructed in accordance with the present invention has a plane top face ll interrupted by a groove l2. The brick has a plane bottom face I3 interrupted by a groove M, the planes of the faces II and I3 being parallel. The groove I2 is right over the groove l4 and preferably these are located about a third of the way from the outside to the inside for a reason which will presently appear. The brick III has a cylindrically curved inside surface l5 and a corrugated outside surface IS. The corrugations ll of the outside surface extend from a base tangent to the intermediate grooves l8 which is a cylindrical surface concentric with the surface IS. The end faces 20 are planes radial to the cylinder of which the surface I5 is a part. Extending between the dovetails l2 and H on the end faces 20 are shallow grooves 2|.

Referring now to Figures 4, 5, 6 and '7, the gas producer may comprise an outer cylindrical iron shell 25 inside of which is a layer of packing 26 and then a series of courses of flrebrick 21, 28, 29, 30, 3| and 32. The bricks 21 and the bricks 32 are wide bricks, the bricks 21 being located at the bottom of the producer and the bricks 32 at the top of the producer just below the cap. The bricks 29 are narrow bricks to leave an air space 33. The bricks 28, 30 and 3| have special shapes,

' the foregoing description is merely illustrative ally destroyed and in the course of time has. to be renewed. Any brick, therefore, which less readily accumulates a deposit of slag and/or clinkers will measurably increase the life ofa as this wall may be at any point.

.Inside the foregoing .flrebrick wall at the bottom of the producer is a further series of courses of flrebricks 34 forming an inward continuation several bricks in thickness of the firebrick wail. Above the bricks 34 are alternately firebricks 35 in columns and openings AIn an -eifort"to -achieve this desiredresult, it ,36 forming a e m m between the course of iirebricks I1 and an interrupted course ll spaced by refractory sills 3 9 of openings 40. The openings 40 are framed by the sills 39, angle refractory shapes 4i, and arches 42 formed of.

arch bricks, as shown.

The grate lining is or may be at the level of the sills as. From there to the level of the underside of the bricks 30,11 have shown the bricks III of the present invention in a series of courses. Above these special bricks i is another series of courses of firebricks 44.

It should be understood that the details of the structure of the producer are given herein merely for-illustration of one eflective manner of utilizing bricks according to the present invention. V

Headers 45 are connected by pipes 46 to. a bustle pipe 41 extending around the producer, through which first air and then steam is sup-. plied to the producer. 1

In the operation of the producer a charge of coke or other fuel is introduced through the top through doors (notshown) upon the grate and then the openings '40 are sealed with brick grains, 2% bentonite, .5% ferric oxide, and the remainder 2V of a temporary binder such as I goulach. A refractory so constituted is described in U. S. patent to Henry C. Fisher, No. 2,118,789. However, other mixtures for the manufacture of silicon carbide bricks may be used and as far as .certain' features of the invention are concerned. refractory material other than,

silicon carbide might be employed.

It is desirable that there be a substantial num- I ber ofthe corrugations l1 and grooves 18. As

a preferred example, each brick is shown as hav- 1 ing nine corrugations. Preferably one-half of. a groove I 8 is located at each end of each brick.

Thereby the bricks l0 may be joined together, forming an unbroken corrugated outer wall.

This also leaves comers that are stronger in the green brick than if the corrugations extended to the edges, and the bricks are also easier to mold. The corrugations can be'matched ina vertical direction by the bricklayer but in laying the refractory wall the joints will preferably be broken in adjacent courses. Thatis to'say, divisions between No. 1 course of bricks will break joints with No. 2 course of bricks and be.

lined up with No. 3 course of bricks, and so on.

The entire refractory wall can expand and conhydrogen being released, thereby forming blue water gas.

Thegas producer constructed in part with the bricks of this invention does not offer any path to short circuit the draft of air or steam. On the contrary, air as well as steam is directed downwardly around the fire bed'and is superheated by the heat which is radiatedoutwardly through the bricks ill. Thereby when the air is on, a very hot fire is quickly developed and when steam is on, the chemical reaction goes to completion and the producing runs are comparatively longer. The corrugated surface formed of the corrugations I1 and grooves I8 presents a much larger radiating surface than is presented by bricks having cylindrical outer surfaces and thereby heat transference through the bricks I0 is measurably increased. This not only cools the interior producer wall from the tops of the arches 42 to the line of the bricks 30 but also increases the superheating of the air and steam both of which results are desirable. Thus no heat is lost but the refractory lining is maintained at a much lower temperature. The inside faces l5 are not corrugated, thus any clinkers that may be formed are easily removed. 'In prior constructions having openings through the refractory lining, clinker formation was reduced, but such clinkers as did form were hard to remove owing to the broken surface of the refractory lining caused by the presence of the openwas. I

The bricks or blocks Ill are preferably made of silicon carbide which is known to be highly refractory and for a refractory material an ex cellent conductor of heat. Silicon carbide also has comparatively great strength at high temtractwithout breaking any bricks owing to its cylindrical shape. I H

The courses of bricks iii are interlocked by filling the grooves l2 and i4 withcement. Adjacent bricks Ill may be interlocked with cement in the grooves 2|. These interlocking means are located well to the outside so that a large part of the refractory wall can be worn away before any brick will come loose. We prefer to use grooves filled with cement to interlock the bricks, since it is easier to lay them and if necessary an individual brick may be more readily removed by fracturing the cement, but interlocking grooves and projections may be substituted.

Bricks II) can readily be molded, the top and bottom plates of the mold forming the plane tops II and bottoms 13, respectively, of the bricks Ill. One side of the mold will be corrugated and as the corrugations are vertical and so also are the grooves 2|, the blocks can be readily stripped from the molds without breakage. The refractory mixture is first molded under pressure, then the formed green bricks are stripped from the mold and transferred to kilns where they are fired in the customary manner for firing silicon.

carbide articles.

It will thus be seen that there has been provided by this invention an article in which the various objects hereinabove set forth together tive, annular wall of a gas producer composed" of ceramic bonded silicon carbide grains shaped substantially as a segment of said annular wall and having top and bottom faces lying in substantially parallel planes, end faces arranged as radial planes, an inner partial cylindrical surface which forms a smooth non-clinkering wall, and a corrugated face forming a portion of an outer heat exchanging surface for said wall, said brick having a circumferential groove cutting each of said plane faces and arranged for the reception of cement which interlocks the bricks 5 together in said wall.

KENRIC H. BIRD. WILLIAM H. HENSON. 

